Lock and load! The Vault Hunters are back and this time they’re delivering one of the best cooperative experiences, with hours upon hours of life wasting gameplay and an impressive amount of loot.

From a game play standpoint Borderlands 2 plays almost exactly the same as the first game, with the exception of the new classes. Although, this is fantastic because the first game played great! Co-op is still a chaotic & fun experience, this is literally one of the best cooperative games out on the market right now. Quests have some variety this time around, without giving too much away you do get to plan and attend a certain character’s party which was a refreshing break from all the bandit killing and looting.

There has been a very minimal amount of lag and since day one I haven’t encountered any lag or lost connections, I hope whoever else gives online play a shot has equal or better luck. Driving feels a little smoother this time around but still it is like driving an RC car with unpredictable physics. The four new classes, not counting the Mechromancer which is being released October 16th, really one-up the previous gang of characters, but it’s nice to see the past cast of characters returning and playing some significant role in the narrative, that is if you can get through the main story without being distracted by hours of side missions and bonus content.

Loot, and I mean lots of loot! There’s so much to salvage from various locations, I have been playing for up to 15+ hours and I have yet to see most of what Pandora has to offer. Gearbox has planned a steady stream of add-ons until June 2013 (dlc) so this game shall keep sucking you in for more very well into next year! Cooperation is encouraged here so you can get better loot and receive more experience from tougher enemies.

Customization. I didn’t expect much since this game is a First Person Shooter/RPG when it comes to the loot and xp, even though it doesn’t have much depth it really is a nice addition, now you can have somewhat distinct characters when dealing with games when you have two of the same class. One thing I would love to point out about Borderlands 2 is that it is just loaded with so many easter eggs, for example the already infamous Minecraft easter egg, with actual creeper enemies, and all these fun little references to various medias just adds to the complete entertainment value of this game.

Borderlands 2 still has the same comic-booky style of graphics to it, but Pandora this time is much more clean and colorful looking world to explore. You’ll be traversing glaciers fighting Bullymongs to fighting Hyperion robots in a fortress on a grassy hill. There is just much more variety to the environment now, it is not just mostly desert. The world feels more alive than previous game. For example, there are citizens walking around Sanctuary and they can be seen interacting with the environment, but not in a profoundly realistic way but it just a nice addition from the stiff and completely stationary characters from the first game.

This game just oozes style which is a great break from most mainstream FPS games trying to go for some kind of realism, for me the games style is what really separates it from the rest of the herd. I freaking love the cast of characters! They’re all likeable or just purely awesome. Once you meet Tiny Tina and the rest of the colorful cast you’ll know what I mean, like Claptrap he’s annoyingly hilarious, and Handsome Jack is a ruthless and disturbingly entertaining antagonist.

This game just took everything great , besides driving, from the first Borderlands and put it on a much larger scale. This is a proper sequel that builds upon the comedic madness of the original trip to Pandora.